Flying Squirrel - What?!?

During our time on the Himalayan trails, we are always on the lookout for hazards as the path is narrow and the terrain is difficult. Interestingly, some of these hazards are animals. The typical encounters are with mules, cows, and goats as they are herded from one village to another. These encounters can be potentially dangerous on the narrow trail as often only one animal fits (you or the 2000-pound livestock), making it necessary to stay on the inside hugging the mountain. While trekking, I often wondered how many livestock fall off the edge and subsequently prayed that I wouldn’t. On rare occasion, we saw the infamous yak, which we would love to adopt but will have to wait as they don’t do well in Kathmandu's lower altitude.

The trail (aka Road to China)

 Mules carrying goods from China

 The Yak

I think my biggest fear has been the possibility of encountering a snake, especially as many are poisonous. Anti-venom in Nepal? I don’t think so. We can’t even get fuel or cooking gas. Two of our teammates encountered one of these deadly snakes on the trail, but thankfully, our Nepali colleague has some impressive snake-slaying skills and came back with pictures of said snake in his bare hands.

So, when you are finally off the trail for the day and enjoying dinner, one would expect to be done with the hazardous animal lookout, right? This was not the case on one of our nights trekking home. Having just sat down on the floor to enjoy some daal bhaat (lentils and rice), we heard a commotion. We were suddenly face-to-face with a large, cat-sized something possessing a long tail, red eyes, red hair, and the temper to go with it. I wasn’t sure what to do – I wanted to run, but wasn't sure I could get up with my sore knees after a full day of trekking. And our gracious hosts kept telling us to keep calm and keep eating. So we watched as they tried to catch this thing.... What ensued reminded me of the Great Outdoors movie clip when they tried to catch the bat in the cabin:

All I kept thinking about was rabies. Despite the hissing and frightening claws of this animal, the Nepalis were able to stab it in the eye causing it to fall to the ground. I thought it was dead, so of course, got closer to look at this thing and take a picture. The locals were picking it up and stretching out it’s wings/legs – A Himalayan Flying Squirrel – a rare sighting in the mountains. While trying to take a picture in the dark, I noticed it was breathing. Quickly we insisted they take it outside while we tried to keep our distance. Although they "trapped" it under a basket, sometime in the middle of the night this flying squirrel escaped. Somewhere in the Himalayas is now a one-eyed flying squirrel. Hope his depth perception is okay, otherwise, some dangerous Himalayan mountain flights may await him.

The Himalayan flying squirrel

What the animal looked like when sprawled out

Despite the hazards and introduction to new animals (i.e. Himalayan Flying Squirrel), we had a great time on the trail making new friends. Definitely looking forward to being back in the mountains again.